Burt Lake Trail progressing; Deadline extended; water backing up

Wednesday

Jun 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Progress on the Burt Lake trail continues along West Burt Lake Road although the completion date has been extended by three weeks to Aug. 3 because of wet weather conditions slowing the process slightly.

By MARY BARKERmbarker@cheboygantribune.com

Progress on the Burt Lake trail continues along West Burt Lake Road although the completion date has been extended by three weeks to Aug. 3 because of wet weather conditions slowing the process slightly.Members of the Burt Lake Trail Committee met Monday to review the project and provide updates. A minor setback was noted because water has backed up in certain areas along the trail. The backup is most severe between Hogsback and Mundt Roads. It has been created by silt fences, which are getting blocked up and holding water from flowing properly. The fences are necessary to keep the silt created by excavation from draining into Burt Lake.Steve Vorenkamp, committee chairman, said M & M Excavating Company is aware of the problem and is taking corrective action. He said once the trenches are filled with gravel and crushed limestone and drainage culverts are completely installed, the water should drain properly.Vorenkamp said he is excited about the progress. In the past two weeks major excavation is near completion and the land is being smoothed, graded and prepped for fill material.“My grandkids are coming this weekend to visit. It won’t be quite ready, but it will be ready for them next year.”In an issue related to trail finances, Vorenkamp expressed some disappointment with North West Design Group of Petoskey, which was hired to secure and process easements with individual landowners along the trail. The company estimated the cost for those services at between $8,000 and $10,000. However, the work was drawn out longer than anticipated and the costs rose. In the end, the bill was approximately $5,000 over the estimate.Committee member Gary Street said the committee should consider this in the future when dealing with North West Design Group. Comments from members concluded that the trail committee did not know what to anticipate in terms of costs pertaining to easement procurement.“I feel they let us down on this,” said Street. “We are the novices and they are the experts. They didn’t provide the guidance we could have expected to have.”